A former Cuomo aide introduced the two at a cocktail party in the Hamptons. According to one of Lee's friends, the chef was immediately smitten: “I remember her being — I don’t want to say infatuated, because it sounds too schoolgirlish — but she was taken with him,” Colleen Schmidt told the New York Times.

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The physical attraction was real.

It's been said that the chef initially described her boyfriend as a "huge, musclebound man" when she first saw him.

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Cuomo and Lee kept their relationship a secret from his children.

According to Lee, Cuomo's daughters were young and they didn't ask — so no one told. Finally, a year-and-a-half later, they decided to let Cuomo's parents spill the news. "We just wanted to make sure that we were going to be together forever [before we told them]. I don’t believe in disrupting their lives," Lee told the New York Post.

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The couple purchased a house together in 2009.

Lee has showed off their Westchester County, NY, Colonial — which she named Lily Pond — in a number of magazines. She and Cuomo completely overhauled the decor to create "the quintessential American house," as she described it in Elle Decor. It's where she's shot many of her shows.

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They have another home, too — and this one's a mansion.

When Cuomo won New York's gubernatorial election in 2011, he took up residence at the New York State Executive Mansion in Albany, NY. Now, he and Lee split their time between that and Lily Pond.

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No, they're not married.

Lee commented on her relationship with Cuomo in the March 2011 issue of Vogue. “Right now I’m happy being a girlfriend, but someday Andrew and I will get there. When his kids say we need to, we will.”

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They welcomed a "baby" to the family at the end of 2010.

"Andrew got me a baby cockatoo for Christmas," Lee told the New York Post. "It's beautiful. All white with a white crest," she added.

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Lee's first fiction novel was inspired by her relationship.

Lee never said so outright, but it's hard to miss the differences. The love interests are a Midwestern woman who loves cooking, works in TV, and has a white cockatoo and a man who loves motorcycles and has curly, brown hair and deep, gray eyes.

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Lee's cancer battle inspired Cuomo.

The chef announced she her breast cancer diagnosis in May 2015 then followed up that she was cancer free that September. The next year, Cuomo announced a $90 million plan for New York to create "the most aggressive breast cancer screening operation in this country."

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Cuomo was the ultimate partner in Lee's fight against cancer.

She told MarketWatch the one important thing he did to keep her spirits high: "He never made me feel that I wasn’t still a desirable, wonderful woman that he was attracted to."

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They're motorcycle aficionados.

The governor and Lee participated in a statewide breast cancer motorcycle ride in 2016 with Billy Joel. The event was meant to raise awareness about and funding for the disease.

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Wait, was that a wedding hint?

A tweet from Lee around Valentine's Day 2017 sent the chef's followers into a straight-up tizzy. She posted a photo of herself in a white dress and captioned it, "I'm having such a lovely time digging through all of this #wedding #Inspiration! What's the most unique thing you've seen done at a wedding?". The day after, she posted something wedding-centric on Facebook. Fans pressed, asking if she was finally getting married, but Lee coyly responded: "I am not engaged nor hinting at my partner about a wedding or a proposal —we have been together 12 years, we don't hint at this point."

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Lee calls Cuomo's kids her own.

Last summer, Cuomo's twins graduated college, and Lee wrote a touching post to them on her Facebook. "This weekend is graduation for two of my three daughters, Cara from Harvard and Mariah from Brown..wow…," she said. But what followed next was the most heartfelt.

"Although I have never birthed children myself, I simply can't imagine loving any child more than I do these three. The thought that I had a hand in helping to raise such beautiful, kind, intelligent girls is amazing. But what I appreciate the most is that Andrew, my life partner and sweetheart, always included me, making me part of the family and the co-parent of these spectacular young women," Lee continued in her post.

Sarah WeinbergDeputy EditorSarah Weinberg is the deputy editor at Delish and has covered food, travel, home, and lifestyle for a number of publications, including Food Network Magazine and Country Living.

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